Preparing for a car trip

[HowardBrazee]

I'm going on vacation at the end of this month with my wife and grandsons (from Denver to San Francisco). I have found some stopping points and created contacts of them, hoping to have the addresses and maps easily available.

I'm cheap about using my phone's minutes, although our iPads could be set up with my phone as a base station. I figure mostly we will use the Internet when we stop.

I'd like some recommendations on how to best use my phone/pad/etc to facilitate getting to fun stops.

 

[KevinJS]

Have a look at my travel thread, particularly the posts showing the use of MotionX GPS HD.

http://www.ipadforums.net/threads/on-the-road-and-off-it-too.89387/

This app costs (I think) $2, and can cache maps for offline use.

 

[HowardBrazee]

What's the differce between MotionX GPS, MotionX GPS Drive, and MotionX GPS HD?

 

[KevinJS]

GPS Drive is more use for those sticking to the roads, I believe.

GPS HD is more useful for off road use, including hiking, mountaineering, etc.

 

[HowardBrazee]

I already bought the 99 cent version but never used it. There are two $1.99 versions.

 

[KevinJS]

I use it all the time, and never resort to printed maps. Also, I dumped my Garmin months ago.

Looks like the 2 $1.99 versions are iPhone and iPad. I only have the iPad version.

http://gps.motionx.com/iphone/overview/
http://gps.motionx.com/ipad/overview/

 

[twerppoet]

To clarify on the version.

MotionX GPS Drive is a navigation app for, well, driving. It is a universal app that is optimized to work on both the iPad and iPhone. It's 99 cents for the basic app, but to get all the features there are some in-app purchases. Last I checked it came with a 30 day trial to check out the extras.

MotionX GPS is a more general mapping app useful for hiking, exploring, and other mappy things. There are two versions, one for the iPhone and one for the iPad (the HD version).

Waypoints can be added in all versions. Just double tap on the map, the drag the map around until the place you want is centered under the waypoint marker; add a description and save.

While the MotionX apps can store maps offline, it is up to you to do so before the trip.



I find the MotionX GPS versions (both HD and iPhone) handy when other map apps fail to do what I want; though it's complexity does have a bit of a learning curve. For driving navigation I use one of three apps, depending on mood and availability of the internet. Apple's Maps app, Google's Maps app, or CoPilot Premium (for the offline maps). Mostly on my iPhone.

CoPilot can do waypoints as well, though the UI is sometimes a pain. It's also more expensive than the MotionX options, even after the in-app purchases. On the other hand it is one of the cheaper offline navigation apps; apps that have their own maps stored locally.

 

[HowardBrazee]

I bought the MotionX GPS HD. When I started it, it did not ask me to identify myself. I did see that I can buy an upgrade to access maps from my own server, but I have no idea what that would give me. I was able to find the loaded files in iTunes, once I figured out that its app name is "GPS HD". So I Googled to find http://www.st-owners.com/forums/sho...to-Create-a-GPX-File-From-a-Google-Maps-Route, and followed directions. Nothing happened with Crome for OSX, so I tried Firefox for OSX after creating a route and clicking on that URL. So I haven't yet created a .gpx file to figure that part out. There is a *lot* to try to figure out how to use this app. The GPS Searching is always spinning, inside or out, but it appears to know where I am.

But basically, is that how it's supposed to work? I notice that it already includes "Apple_HQ,_Cupertino,_CA.gpx" (and a home.gpx, and a bunch of others from around the world). I am guessing there's a way to use this app to find out where that is without setting up a trip.

Menu/Setup/Purchases is unable to contact the iTunes store to receive product information - even though it is connected to my Mac right now.

Somewhere there must be a way to identify myself - after all it offers the ability to share via Facebook. Email Share won't turn on if I don't have one set up, but I'm not finding it anywhere.

 

[KevinJS]

I'll have a dig through it, and see if I can answer some of your questions. It's a huge program, and although I've been using it for a long time now, I probably use a fraction of its capabilities.

 

[twerppoet]

Perhaps this will help. Notice the QuickStart, video, and Manual links in the left column.

http://gps.motionx.com/ipad/overview/

Good luck.


Edit: Never mind the videos. They aren't tutorials, as I thought at first.

 

[HowardBrazee]

I got back the Garmin Nuvi 5000 I lent to my son a couple of years ago. It is missing a part to the car power cord, and when I plugged it into my computer, it never got past one screen. The Garmin utilities can't find it, but my third browser was able to send a MapQuest saved map to it. Then I found the MapQuest-276.GPX file and dragged it to my iPad's Motion X app via iTunes. I started the app, and found that it is searching for GPS. Apparently I have the wrong type of iPad. I have to buy another copy of the program to work on my iPhone. But I finally found the .gpx file in tracking - in a very useless form, with straight lines going to my stops. Nothing to guide me on my trip. I must be looking the wrong place. I want to use it the way I used to use the Garmin.

 

[HowardBrazee]

I got back the Garmin Nuvi 5000 I lent to my son a couple of years ago. It is missing a part to the car power cord, and when I plugged it into my computer, it never got past one screen. The Garmin utilities can't find it, but my third browser was able to send a MapQuest saved map to it. Then I found the MapQuest-276.GPX file and dragged it to my iPad's Motion X app via iTunes. I started the app, and found that it is searching for GPS. Apparently I have the wrong type of iPad. I have to buy another copy of the program to work on my iPhone. But I finally found the .gpx file in tracking - in a very useless form, with straight lines going to my stops. Nothing to guide me on my trip. I must be looking the wrong place. I want to use it the way I used to use the Garmin.

I even tried plugging in a Bad Elf GPS which I got with my previous, 1st generation iPad.

 

[Thomas1977]

Um it might make a difference if the iPad is wifi or cellular.

 

[twerppoet]

This is an old thread.

However, the Bad Elf GPS units are specifically meant to add GPS features to a non-cellular iPad. iPads with the cellular option have a built in GPS. They don't need external add ons.

I haven't looked at Bad Elf GPS for a long time, so I don't know how useful they are these days. They were fairly limited back in the iPad 3 days. I do see they are still available, and in Lightning port versions.